


A Moment Of Dying

by Merfilly



Series: Leaving Monsters Behind [1]
Category: Aliens (1986), Pitch Black (2000)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-29
Updated: 2009-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 11:30:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carolyn survives...and they must choose new paths</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Moment Of Dying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



She feels the pain blossom, sees the shock in his face, the man that had shown no surprise this entire horrid trip, and knows she is dying. There is nothing but the waiting of it, as the mind and body war over what functions must end.

Only....she's caught in what might be, in what was, not in the dying itself. She remembers Owens, wonders why she's not screaming. She feels a jerk as Riddick moves, and then she's falling in blackness, wondering just what the dance would have finished with, if Riddick and she had both survived.

The feel of the wet, the sensation of the pain, the sight of his violent movement blur into one, and then there is nothing but the blackness.

`~`~`~`~`

Her eyes flicker open, a blur ahead of them, before she begins to realize there is a pair of silver orbs peering at her intently.

"You made it," comes the gravel rumble of a voice that makes the hair on her arms stand up.

"How?"

"Jack saw it coming. Good arm, too. Threw one of the bottles, caught its wing before it had launched, gave me the minute I needed to snap its neck."

She's aware then of a familiar vibration, the feel of a ship's drive. It's too intense to be the shuttle; they made the spacing lanes, apparently. She looks again at Riddick, fear in her soul...and it's not for herself.

"I'm touched, Carolyn," he says, that hint of a dark smile gracing his lips. "The captain was told that Richard B. Riddick died on that hell planet. I'm a simple surveyor named Zeke."

"Shazza'd be pissed."

"The Imam said it was best," Riddick tells her.

"Maybe."

`~`~`~`~`

Jack doesn't leave them, even when Riddick and Jack disappear for an argument. Carolyn doesn't mind too much. She remembers her thought of how the dance would end, and has to smile.

They're setting off for new sectors, following the rumors of Cameron's Run, a colony of survivors that reject the corporations, that live by their wits and strengths. Riddick says he knows someone there, a man named Hicks, and they'll be able to live true to their natures.

Carolyn isn't sure what that is for herself anymore, but she knows the feel of a knife on her skin, the weight of a hilt in her hand, will never feel alien to her again. She knows that Riddick is a killer. She knows he's a predator and he cannot be anything but. She sees it in Jack, the initial sense of rebellious worship is actually manifesting as true to who Jack is. She... no, not she. Not he, either, but something neither and both all in one. Jack learns, grows, trains, and Carolyn knows it pleases Riddick, no matter how rough he can be when he corrects his student.

Carolyn pleases him too, a fact she learns over and over again on the journey to Cameron's Run. He can be so intense, so forceful, but she never fails to find pleasure in the controlled violence that he is. On some deep level, she wonders at that, wonders just who she really is now.

She doesn't dig at it too deeply, though, because for the first time in her life, she knows she is not afraid, and that she is in control. No one, save maybe the Imam, would believe it, looking at Riddick.

But Carolyn knows, understands as much as she knows she's a new person, she bought Riddick's freedom with her determination and coming back for him. She sees it every time he caresses the scar from the raptor, feels it in his desperate use of her body in their loving.

That moment of dying, she reflects as they descend to their new home, was the portal of rebirth. Like any new baby, she will find herself all over again...and never be alone again.


End file.
